Biochemical Overview of Neural Mechanisms That Are Affected by MDMA

In order to understand what MDMA does to the human body, you must first understand the way the human body works. Whenever a drug changes the way a person acts, that is because it has made changes in the complex systems within the body. Chemicals like MDMA interact with naturally occurring chemical systems, and that is where they produce changes. The most noteable chemical changes caused by MDMA take place in the brain. Here, MDMA alters neurotransmission- the way in which the cells of the brain communicate with one another. MDMA appears to mainly affect two specific neurotransmitters: serotonin and dopamine. To understand how the effects of MDMA on these two neurotransmitters create changes in the human brain, you first need to know how these neurotransmitters normally function.

&nbsp If you are comfortable with the basics of neurotransmission, you might just want to check out specific neurotransmitters and how they are affected by MDMA. If, however, you are not a scientist, read up on neurotransmission and neurotransmitters to learn some of their basic aspects. Terms that are underlined are defined in the
glossary, so if you do not understand an underlined word, move your mouse over it and a definition will appear or else click on it to access the entire glossary.